| The spatial distribution of economic activities and economic growth in China have shown a high degree of geographical consistency over the past forty years.The eastern area is a highly agglomerated region with strong economic development tendency,yet the western area is a region with low agglomeration and relatively backward economic development.It implies that there is a certain intrinsic correlation between economic agglomeration and economic growth.In the meantime,regions with fast economic development often experience increased pollution emissions and environmental issues due to large-scale resource and energy utilization.Additionally,Deng Xiaoping once noted that"some regions and some people can become rich first,driving and helping other regions and other people to gradually achieve common prosperity."Despite having a larger population of wealthy individuals in economically developed areas,there are still those who rely on low-income support,which results in significant wealth gaps.These factors indicate that economic growth has not yet fully decoupled from energy consumption,and full public participation has not been achieved,which leaves ample room for improvement.Thus,it has become crucial to accelerate the transformation of the development model and address ecological,environmental,and social equity challenges.In 2012,the World Bank first proposed the concept of inclusive green growth,emphasizing the need to consider both ecological and social equity factors in the process of economic development.Countries should strive to achieve coordinated economic growth,ecological environment improvement,and social equity development,and pursue a sustainable development path.This concept has been advocated globally and China has actively responded.How to achieve inclusive green growth and to improve its efficiency has become a major issue.In view of the objective reality of economic and social development,this paper raises the research questions:Does economic agglomeration improve the efficiency of inclusive green growth?Through which transmission path does economic agglomeration affect the efficiency of inclusive green growth?Are there spatial spillover effects between economic agglomeration and the efficiency of inclusive green growth?To comprehensively clarify these issues from both theoretical and empirical perspectives,this paper incorporates economic agglomeration and inclusive green growth efficiency into the same analytical framework,attempting to explore the impact of economic agglomeration on China’s inclusive green growth efficiency.Firstly,this paper refers to the relevant literature on economic agglomeration and inclusive green growth.Based on the summary of previous research,this paper clarifies the research perspective and approach.Secondly,economic agglomeration is divided into three stages:the embryonic stage,the development stage,and the mature stage.The theoretical mechanisms by which economic agglomeration affects the efficiency of inclusive green growth are analyzed in detail for each stage,and the main research hypotheses of this paper are proposed.Thirdly,this paper investigates the transmission paths through which economic agglomeration improves the efficiency of inclusive green growth from three aspects:human capital,technological innovation,and optimization and upgrading of industrial structure.Furthermore,it analyzes the spatial spillover effects of economic agglomeration on the efficiency of inclusive green growth.Finally,using sample data from 281 cities between 2004 and2020,this paper employs various econometric models,such as system GMM estimation,interaction effects model,panel threshold model,and spatial Dubin model,to conduct empirical tests.The research hypotheses proposed are tested,and the main research conclusions are drawn.Specifically,the conclusions are as follows.(1)The degree of national economic agglomeration has been increasing annually,but the growth rate has been declining.Regional heterogeneity in economic agglomeration exists.Economic agglomeration has risen continuously from 6.29million RMB/km~2in 2004 to 29.50 million RMB/km~2in 2020,indicating an increase in agglomeration.The eastern region has the highest degree of economic agglomeration and has been above the national average for a long time,followed by the central region,then the northeastern and western regions have the lowest degree of agglomeration.In terms of growth rate,the national growth rate began to decline sharply after 2007 and stabilized after 2016.Specifically,the growth rate trends of the eastern,central,and western regions have been parallel,decreasing gradually during the observation period.Only the northeastern region experienced a significant decline between 2010 and 2016.(2)The efficiency of inclusive green growth in China is at a relatively low level and exhibits a"U"shaped trend.Between 2004 and 2006,the efficiency of inclusive green growth decreased.From 2007 to 2012,the efficiency of inclusive green growth remained stable at around 0.67 without significant fluctuations.Then,since 2012,the efficiency level has continuously improved significantly.There is regional heterogeneity in the efficiency of inclusive green growth across China.The efficiency values in the eastern and northeastern regions are higher,whereas those in the central and western regions are lower than the national average.According to the kernel density map,the difference in efficiency of inclusive green growth gradually widens,and the uneven spatial distribution becomes increasingly severe.(3)The efficiency of inclusive green growth exhibits path dependence.Progress in efficiency during the previous period can promote efficiency in the current period,creating a virtuous cycle.In terms of regional distribution,the efficiency of inclusive green growth in the western region is most affected by the efficiency values of the previous period,followed by the central region,while the eastern and northeastern regions are less affected.When analyzed by city level,non-provincial capital cities are more influenced by previous efficiency levels than provincial capital cities regarding the efficiency of inclusive green growth.(4)The impact of economic agglomeration on the efficiency of inclusive green growth shows a"U"shaped trend.In particular,the impacts of economic agglomeration on green economic efficiency and on inclusive growth efficiency are"U"-shaped.The turning point of the"U"shaped curve is calculated to be 6.4(6.01million RMB/km~2).Most of the cities that have not yet reached the point are located in the western and northeastern regions.If the degree of economic agglomeration continues to deepen in these two regions,the efficiency may further decrease in the coming period.However,if agglomeration is not pursued,labor and capital input will be constrained and economic development will remain behind.(5)Economic agglomeration can enhance the efficiency of inclusive green growth through three pathways:human capital,technological innovation,and industrial structure optimization and upgrading.Among them,the industrial structure optimization and upgrading pathway has the greatest impact.Further analysis using a panel threshold model reveals that as technology levels increase,the positive impact of economic agglomeration on inclusive green growth efficiency gradually decreases.However,the positive impact of economic agglomeration on inclusive green growth efficiency continues to rise with industrial structure optimization and upgrading.Human capital does not pass the threshold test,indicating that the influence of economic agglomeration on inclusive green growth efficiency through human capital is linear and does not exhibit a threshold effect.Considering spatial factors,economic agglomeration can improve the efficiency of inclusive green growth in neighboring areas through the human capital and technological innovation pathways.The spatial effect of the industrial structure optimization and upgrading pathway is not significant.(6)There is a positive spatial correlation between economic agglomeration and inclusive green growth efficiency.Taking spatial factors into account,the impact of economic agglomeration on the efficiency of inclusive green growth in neighboring areas shows a"U"-shape.By regional distribution,economic agglomeration in the eastern and central regions has significant spatial spillover effects on the efficiency of inclusive green growth in surrounding areas,promoting their efficiency.Yet there is no significant spatial spillover effect of economic agglomeration on the efficiency of neighboring regions in the western and northeastern areas.At the city level,economic agglomeration in provincial capital cities negatively affects the efficiency of inclusive green growth in neighboring areas,whereas non-provincial capital cities exhibit a trend of initially declining and then increasing impacts of economic agglomeration on the efficiency of inclusive green growth in neighboring areas. |
